Top 10 Surprising Facts About How Our Brains Work

There are lots of theories on how the brain works, but we don’t really know that much about it. Here are 10 ways your brain works you might not have known!

1. When You Are Tired, Your Brain is More Creative

When performing creative tasks you are trying to make new connections, create new ideas. When your brain isn’t functioning efficiently it isn’t able to filter distractions and focus as well as when you are well rested. This means it also isn’t good at remembering idea and concept connections, opening up infinite new connection possibilities without the limitations of old ones.

2. Stress Can Make Your Brain Smaller

A stress test with baby monkeys showed startling long-term effects on the brain. Monkeys who were stressed continued to have enlarged stress areas in their brains compared to unstressed infants. Meanwhile, the hippocampus of the monkeys’ brains, an integral memory forming area of the brain, shrank!

3. Our Brain is Incapable of Multi-tasking

“Multi-tasking” is impossible for our brain to do. When we think we are multi-tasking our brain is actually “context-switching,” or switching between different tasks. Research shows that this can actually be detrimental to the tasks we are performing during this time – error rate increases 50% and it could take you twice as long to perform the tasks rather than focusing on them independently.

4. Your Brain Loves Naps

We all know that sleep is important to our brains, but it turns out that short sleep cycles also have benefits for our brain you might not have realized. A nap will help improve your memory and help you learn better too. This is because when you nap the right side of your brain – the long-term memory storage- is more active. This means your brain is moving short-term information into your long-term right hemisphere.